I think this can be contributed to several factors.
Traditionally Disney is the more “accepting” franchise with the “be yourself” and “accepting other for who they are” messages in many of their movies. What would Aladdin have been if Jasmine didn’t accept him as a street rat? Or Beauty and the Beast if Belle couldn’t see past the Beast’s “beastly” exterior? Dreamworks, after they stopped imitating Disney, is the much darker world where things don’t always have “happily ever after”. They have a war between vikings and dragons where they have said hundreds and thousands have been killed on each side and the genocide of Pandas because of a prophesy. Hiccup wasn’t accepted for he was until he “proved” himself worthwhile by training dragons and even then he had to defeat the “master” dragon and lose a leg, nearly dying, in the process to get his own father’s respect. Po, while not seeming to be rejected as Hiccup was, only seemed to have his father as someone who truly accepted as Po couldn’t even accept himself until he, again, “became worthwhile” by becoming the Dragon Warrior and a hero to the village. I guess one could argue that Disney does have some “proving yourself” story lines such as Mulan but the feel of how Disney and Dreamworks do these stories feel different to me. Like you know Mulan will succeed and be accepted but you’re unsure of how much its going to cost Hiccup to do the same.
2. Main Character VS. Villain
Ralph, as the title of his movie suggests, is the main character of his movie so we’re suppose to route for him and he’s suppose to succeed. Pitch, is the villain of his movie so we’re suppose to want him to fail. It doesn’t matter that Pitch and Ralph are very similar, Pitch equally sympathetic and lonely as Ralph and even more so at times because Pitch gets rejected by the one person he reaches out to, because those were the roles they were assigned.
The way these characters try to improve their lives are also very different. Ralph sets out to prove he’s more than a bad guy, that he can be a hero so he can live WITH the people who are in his life but always treated him no better than garbage when they weren’t being afraid of him. Pitch on the other hand wants to RULE in fear. He doesn’t care if he’s terrorizing children as long as they can see, and fear, him. He doesn’t care that he’s slowly killing the guardians by taking away children’s faith in them as long as it makes him more powerful. He even flat out kills Sandman to control dreams, making them into more nightmares to further terrorize the children. He isn’t completely power hungry because he was willing to share that power with Jack, to a lesser extent, because he wanted someone WITH him; an alley or friend because even when children could see him he was still alone.
The characters within their movies they have a similar back story with are almost as different as Ralph and Pitch themselves. Vanellope is a child, physically, mentally and in time since her game is much newer than Ralph’s. She has the innocence and open mindedness a child has. When she first meets Ralph she doesn’t see a villain; she sees someone that doesn’t know her and she can have fun with and, later, as someone who can her even after learning that he is a bad guy in his game. Jack, while physically and mentally a teenager, as lived more years and has had more experiences then most of us could ever dream up and that makes him a bit of an adult even if he wouldn’t see it that way. Jack is a bit idealistic, living in the moment for fun rather than responsibility, one of the reasons he first rejected being a guardian, but he’s adult enough to know that people can do bad things. He knows before meeting Pitch that he’s a threat to children and that colors his interactions with him even though they have a lot in common. Vanellope also sort of forces Ralph to interact and eventually bond with her while Jack and Pitch’s interactions are kept to a minimum so there’s no chance for Jack to see more of Pitch then what the villain shows. Ralph and Pitch are very much shaped by these two, Ralph for the better and Pitch almost for the worse because it makes him more bitter to be rejected by the one person he thought could understand. There’s also how Vanellope’s life being threatened by Turbo makes Ralph shine as a hero and accept himself as who he is but Jack’s rejection makes Pitch want to cause him pain and succeeds in threatening Babytooth, breaking Jack’s staff and leaving him to essentially die alone in a crevice… crevasse? I could also go into the factors of Vanellope being a little girl and Jack being a “teen” boy but I think most of those factors go along with what I’ve already said.
There’s probably a lot more I could get into but those are the basic points right off the top of my head. That being said the way Dreamworks treated Pitch both makes me angry and sad. I’m angry Pitch never got a chance. I’m sad that he’s still alone and, by the looks of the ending, afraid himself and trapped with the NightMares of his own creation.
What I would have liked to seen is how it went up until Pitch woke up up after Sandy’s return. Instead of the children passing through him I would have liked Jamie to offer him a hand up because even though he’s no longer afraid of Pitch he still believes in him. Children, people in general, NEED fear to help them grow and make them stronger. Can you imagine how GREAT those children had felt after facing their fears and fighting alongside the Guardians? And they would had Pitch to thank for that. Maybe they could have helped Pitch become a teacher who used fear to help children grow rather than make then cower.
How to Train Your Dragon got a sequel so maybe the Guardians will have another shot to correct the missed opportunities they had with Pitch?
